Norwegian Cruise Line offers customers Christmas specials

FRIDAY, NOV. 30:

Christmas special

Norwegian Cruise Line is offering a 12 Days of Savings Sale. The deal started on Wednesday and runs through December 9. Every day Norwegian will offer a different deal on its website. Wednesday’s deal was reduced rates on selected sales and included a special promo code (HOTDEAL).

Two of those deals included a 13-day transatlantic on the Norwegian Epic from Barcelona, Spain to Miami and a 16-day transatlantic on the Norwegian Star from New Orleans to Copenhagen, Denmark.

Sample prices on the Spain to Miami trip, which leaves on April 20,  were: inside cabin ($579), balcony ($799) and mini suite ($999).

Sample prices on the New Orleans to Denmark trip, which leaves on April 21,  were: inside cabin ($549), and oceanview (749).

If you were to take an inside cabin on the New Orleans trip, that works out to less than $35 a day per person, which is really a great deal.

There were other deals like a 7-day western Caribbean for December 16, January 6 or January 13 with prices starting from $349.

Go to NCL.com to check out the daily deal.

During the holidays, Norwegian ships spread the holiday spirit with festive decorations, themed menu items and special activities.

I’ve been on a Norwegian ship over Christmas and they do go all out to give it  a holiday feel.

They also do the same for Hanukkah.

The ships will be decorated with holiday decorations such as a menorah, which will be lit each evening, poinsettias and twinkling lights. A rabbi will be on board and a priest or minister will be available to conduct services on Christmas Eve.

It’s a fun time to be sailing with family.

Cayman

JetBlue is now flying to Grand Cayman and is offering special sale prices for flights booked by December 7. I played around with the dates a bit booking a round trip flight from Bermuda to JFK and then to Grand Cayman and was able to come in at just under $700.

Alamo

The rental car giant is offering a free day with a five-day rental. The offer started on November 19 (but they did not e-mail customers about this until November 28) and is good until December 15. A bit of poor marketing on their part, but any chance to save money is good although the window for this deal is significantly narrowed because of the late notification. Your rental must include a Saturday night and is good for a standard size car and is not valid in Manhattan. You also have to book your car 24 hours in advance.

Go to www.Alamo.com.

Awards

If you have ever tried cashing in your frequent flier miles for tickets, you know that can be a challenge at time. All the blackout dates and other restrictions can make it quite a hassle to be able to use up your accumulated points.

A recent survey from IdeaWorks on reward seat availability shows that Southwest Airlines — the parent company of AirTran was number one in award-booking success with an almost unheard of 100 per cent rate.

Air Tran was tied for number two with United at 87.1 per cent.

The rest of the North American airlines that fly to Bermuda are: JetBlue 86.4 per cent; Air Canada 78.6 per cent; American 45.7 per cent; US Airways 33.6 per cent; and Delta 27.1 per cent.